America, where ‘Merry Christmas’ is optional

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I think Jack McDonough’s Dec. 17 letter “Offense at word ‘Christmas’ is itself offensive” includes a mistaken assumption. He wrote that Christmas is a “Christian observance,” and that it “used to unite all of us.” But the United States of America is not, and never was, a Christian nation, so it couldn’t have united more than a fraction of Americans.

I read McDonough’s letter as being unhappy that people are taking steps to involve everyone, not just Christians, in the season, and I think that is very much against the holiday spirit.